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Unauthorized Facebook Videos Help to Sell More Music, Study Shows

Summary/Commentary:

In a new study, researchers fine that unauthorized fan-made videos can actually direct would-be consumers. Through unauthorized uploads, fans are unknowingly helping artists to increase viral social media content to help drive music sales.

As the music industry battles with Facebook over royalties and what’s fair, there’s always been this lingering question. How important are Facebook videos to artist careers, anyway? And more importantly, how important are fan-created, unauthorized videos to artist careers?

Now, thanks to a groundbreaking, multi-month study, we have a much better idea. According to the data, Facebook not only played a defining role in Adele’s latest smash hit, ‘Hello,’ but its fan-created videos were the biggest piece of that victory. “Interestingly, our research also found that video copies uploaded by fans were responsible for much of the buzz surrounding Hello’s music video,” research firm Plexeso relayed.

But this wasn’t just limited to Facebook. It covered all fan-created videos, across multiple platforms. People just interact with user generated stuff more often. And, more deeply.

“Cumulatively, all copies of the music video received over 2.5x more engagement than the source video over the course of 101 days.”

The finding is interesting because of the extreme success of ‘Hello’. According to data from Nielsen Soundscan, ‘Hello’ is the fastest single to reach one million downloads in a week. But that was just one of several record-breaking accomplishments. Adele’s album, 25, is now one of the best-selling releases in modern music history.

All of which strongly indicates that Facebook engagement boosted sales, instead of hurting them.

Original vs. ‘Fan-Created’ (ie, ‘unauthorized) Videos.

The ‘source’ video is the official version, sanction by the label and Adele. ‘Fan-created,’ on the other hand, refers to unauthorized versions of the video that were copied, altered, or outright spoofed. And, in many cases, ripped down by the copyright owner. All in all, Facebook’s unauthorized videos not only eclipsed the number of original videos, but absolutely crushed them in terms of engagement.